Your Fight Or Fight Response

Fight or fight

 

I've been hearing about the fight or flight response since I was a kid. I learned a lot more about it when I was in nursing school. I learned that it was part of our sympathetic nervous system, and how over the pass few million years we are hardwired to either stand and fight when we are attacked, or choose to run away. Over the years I would nervous system has accommodated either one of these two actions by giving us an influx of vital hormones, especially adrenaline. These hormones give us the energy and the strength to either fight, or they give us the speed to run away. That's why it has been named the "fight or flight" response.

 

Since there are no more sabertooth, tigers, or other huge man eating mammals, stocking the streets, the fight or flight response has taken on a new meaning for our modern man. As human men, our greatest threats are no longer 700 pound sabertooth tigers, 1000 pound mammals with 8 inch claws, and 7 inch fangs to rip us to shreds.  And since we had to share the savanna, grasslands and other hunting and living grounds a couple million years ago with creatures that out weighed us as much as tenfold, fighting, was not an option, but running or "Flight" was the best option.  Since we were severely outgunned for well over 2 million years, and we only had weapons for less than 500,000 years, our fight or flight response, was a much more flight then it was fight.  Since we have designed, produced, and used weapons for much less time than we had been empty-handed, our fight or flight response has taken a few turns.

 

Our fight, or flight response, which isn't as physically necessary as it is today, it still responds the same way by dumping adrenaline into our bloodstream, raising our heart rate, opening up our bronchioles, and filling our muscles with potential energy, which, for the most part these days Does this much more harm than good. I'm not saying, we never need this response, often times overseas at war, or even being physically attacked on the street, we still need our fight or flight response, just not nearly as much as we did for about 99% of the time we've been on earth. 

 

That same response that was created through evolution to protect our lives by killing a predator, or successfully, escaping from one, now floods our body, with a simple verbal argument with a stranger, or even a spouse. Basically that same response that was given to us to keep us alive, is now Killing us by fooling us to think that we are in physical danger, when we are in reality just having a political debate with a family member. And since in this day and age, we have those arguments and debates so much, and it mimics a true life or death situation in your, sympathetic nervous system, the influx of our fight or flight hormones, help to cause cardiac disease, hypertension, stomach and intestinal, ulcers, strokes, and a slew of psychological illnesses. So basically a physical and mental response, which was given to us to protect our life, is now doing a lot more harm than good.

 

Think about it, when's the last time that you were walking down the street and a powerful sabertooth tiger started chasing you, so you needed an adrenaline rush, so you could get away as quickly as you could to take cover. Or when's the last time a hostile, neighboring tribe, physically attacked you and you needed that adrenaline dump to give yourself extra power to conquer the attackers. I bet you can't think of a time in your life when either of those things happen, but I bet at least 20 times every single day you get that same rush of adrenaline, heavy breathing increased heart rate shift of all of your blood flow from your stomach into your muscles to prepare for a life or death situation because somebody made a political statement that you did not agree with. You are not in physical danger in anyway, and you didn't have a reason to fight, or to run away, but your bodies preparing for both, where is all of that heighten readiness go? Well, I think we all know that it goes into giving you cardio pulmonary disease, G.I. disease, emotional, distress, and depression. Your body is treating you like urine, physical danger of eminent death, but in reality someone just commented about a political issue that you did not agree with.  Isn't it crazy that we took some thing that was so powerful to keep us alive over the past over 2 million years, and we have evolved backwards to now that same life-saving process, is now probably the number one killer of our population. 

 

Now that I've talked about how this physiological and psychological bodily function was created, and has helped keep humans alive for well over 2 million years, yet it is now pretty much doing nothing but killing humans off at pretty much the highest rate of any other Illness or disease.  Now let's talk about how we can turn back the hands of Time, and only use this magnificent bodily function in the way it was created, not the deadly way that it has evolved into.

 

First off, since we know, without a doubt that it is our number one killer as humans, what can we do to either reverse this process, or at least make sure we only use it as it was intended when it was made over 2.5 million years ago.  And I know things have changed drastically in those couple of millions of years, but somethings are still the same. One of the things that is the same is the fact that there are still bad people in the world that want to do us harm, not so much, great, woolly mammoth's, or sabertooth tigers, but there are a lot of really bad and evil humans in this country, and if we are attacked, we have to deal with them the same way we would've had to a couple of million years ago. No matter what the species of animal, we have to deal with it by stopping the threat, because whether it was millions of years ago, or today, we wanna stay alive and healthy, so that we can make it home to see our families. Same hill, true for the caveman, they had to stop the threat so they can make it home to their caves to see their families. and and since the gold is the same, but usually the source of the threat is a lot different now than it was back. Then, I think, instead of fight or flight, today's modern warrior, or martial artist, we need to re-brand this physiologic response to fight or fight. I think fight or fight is much more applicable today, with our modern warriors, fighting overseas, or protecting their families here in the United States. We need to be more vigilant and realize the difference between a political argument, and a life or death physical attack.  It's crazy that the response is the same, but I guess when God gave us this tool for protection, he didn't think we'd be as petty, small, minded, and weak as we are today and we use such a powerful tool to win a political argument!  Let me reiterate, this crazy but true statement... how her body reacts exactly the same way, prepares us for war in both cases, even if one of these issues was a simple, verbal, non-threatening disagreement. Our powerful fight or flight response has definitely turned into a joke, and this is evolution?

 

Oh, well, that was all the bad news, let's talk about the good news. I assume that anyone reading my content is some type of warrior. Is that you're a martial artist who would gladly risk your life to save your family if you put in that position, in the military, law-enforcement, first responder, anyone who is protecting our citizenry. Tell me to talk to you guys accordingly, and if you don't fit this content, please disregard.  I want to take back this response right now, use it appropriately as needed, and do not use it when not needed. First off, I'm going to rebrand and rename it to. Fight, or fight, mainly because in this day and age where most physical attacks happen, running is not an option. Back in the caveman days, they could be outside of their cave, and they see a threat, they could run back into their cave, if they were near a tree, maybe they could climb a tree, but for us, we usually don't have the option of physically running away from a attack situation. So I'm gonna stick with fight or fight response. And I want to get rid of the flight response, and the pseudo fight response. Let me explain those two.

 

I think the flight response is not really an issue, so there's not much we can do about it, except for renaming the response more appropriately. So with that said, let's talk about the pseudo-fight response. We need to realize so that our body does a simple argument or disagreement, should not trigger your sympathetic nervous system into thinking you're being attacked by a 750 pound gorilla, it has to know the difference between a simple disagreement with a Karen, and a life threatening physical attack. The reason this is such an important thing to conquer is because your body has not involved, and since you have such dislike and distrust for your political foes, your body nervous system treats it as if it were physical, so it pumps up all the steroids, and overtime, you have cried wolf so many times, your nervous system doesn't know the difference, so you have to retrain it. Your brain starts this whole process, so you have to train your brain that it doesn't need to go through such a life or death response, and that starts from your brain calming down your body so that the fight or flight response does not initiate. I know how irritating, these betas can be, so I won hundred percent understand why you get so worked up when they start spouting their hogwash. As martial artist however we have to rise above that and Hoover at a higher plane. Now when I say Hoover at a higher plane, I don't mean we should always take the Highground, by no means do I feel that is appropriate, or beneficial in creating a more peaceful place to coexist with these knuckleheads. Simply put we just have to be more relaxed, in other words, sitting at a higher plane, and then reality will only come down when we're physically needed to protect ourselves or our loved ones. Now then, and only then, is when we need our fight or fight response. Our body has to act like we're filling a prescription at the pharmacy because it's go time. We do not need this response when someone disagrees with us, cut us off in traffic, starts a rumor about you, dislikes, your cooking, or even calls you a bad name. The fight or flight response was not made for any of this bullshit, and I don't know how it is ever "evolved" into responding to such nonsense. The fight or fight response should only rear its violent head when you feel imminent danger, not when you feel "triggered."

 

I know, let's fix this completely flawed evolution, it's definitely taking a bad turn, so let's fix it. since we know how and why the impetus of this process was created, and we definitely know where it's gone wrong, since it's been wrong for thousands of years, it's going to be a work in progress for a while, but since you want to fix it, let's start right now.

1. Be mindful: I think the first and most important factor in stopping all of the death, destruction, unhappiness, and depression is simply realizing what a true life or death physical threat is, and what it's not, and then very mindfully stop treating a simple political disagreement like a life or death attack. Yes, it's really that simple that will start at all evolving the right way. When you're not mindful of these things, it initiates an anger, violent, hate, and fear response, that your body responds to pray, preparing yourself for war, and that is actually coming from you, because in your brain, we're all of this begins. You're actually imagining all of this to be life or death. Let's get back to that word, mindfulness, and how that can make such an integral part of taking this process, back to where it belongs, and putting it in the right path. know the difference between a life or death, physical attack, and a disagreement be mindful of the two and realize that because somebody disagrees with you politically your life is not in eminent danger, with their silly policies they're making it worse, but you are not an eminent danger of being physically harmed, so quit thinking you are so your body doesn't react like you are.  And that is all I mean by the word mindful.

2. Meditation: dedicate some time throughout your day to meditate. Just like the average male sit in front of a TV or gaming screen about four hours, a day, and the average American woman in her lifetime will spend about 12 straight years, putting on make up, I think spending 20 minutes twice a day to make your mind and your body work better, be more peaceful, be more, productive, be healthier, and be happier.  There are many types of meditation, I personally practice, Transcendental Meditation, and I have since 1976. It is probably helped me more than any non-physical exercise has. Meditation has been proven to not only prevent and heal multiple physical and mental ailments. Meditating of any type is great, but I have study transcendental the most so when I'm talking about the benefits of meditation, I'm referring to Transcendental Meditation, But just know that anytime you put your mind in that type of peaceful coexistence, he transcend your physical being, and that's the important part. So while I do spend close to an hour, every day, physically training, I spend at least 40 minutes every day training my brain, meditating. and meditation is both the opposite and exactly the same as your fight or flight response.  It is the same because in both cases, you have a very heightened sense of being. The main difference being while they both heighten your senses, meditating, gives you inner peace and relaxation, and that shows during studies. When you're in a heightened state brought on by fight or flight response, everything is faster, heart rate blood pressure goes up respiratory rate goes up you are anything but relaxed, you are heightened, but definitely not relaxed. I'm going over this 20 or 30 times a day, that's where the physical ailments start.

3.  Last, but definitely not least you could help reverse this epidemic of hyper "feeling threatenedNess" the best way to feel safe, physically, is to feel prepared. Physically, the best way to feel safe, mentally, is to feel prepared physically. What I mean by that is, you could think you can beat an attacker all day long, but if you can't physically beat that attacker, you're not gonna beat that attacker. Now, if you physically could beat that attacker, but you don't think you can mentally then you'll lose physically, but like I said, you have to be physically prepared to be able to be successful in a physical attack. Training is by far the best way to be physically and mentally prepared for a fight. And like I said, the only way to be mentally prepared is to be physically prepared, unless you're delusional. So with that said, training is the most important tool for you to use your fight or flight response, into the way it's been rebranded "fight or fight". And since you guys are martial, artists, warriors, you have the training, there is no reason for flight, and there's no reason to feel threatened by a "pseudo" fight response.  Being physically prepared for an attack, gives you a great feeling of safety and peace. When you are well trained, do you have a heightened sense of safety, and peace, and things don't bother you as much as they do for betas they are very excitable and stressed out all the time, because the majority of them are very weak and cowardly, and that makes him feel very insecure. so hard physical training is definitely the way to stop the pseudo-fight or flight episodes.  I may sound repetitive thinking that all of our country's ills will be cured by martial arts training. Think really hard about all the majority of our country's ailments, physically, mentally and emotionally. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money, if the majority of Americans followed a martial lifestyle, which includes but is not limited to a clean muscle building, and physically recovery-based diet, and some physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional activity, regular, consistent, serious, intense, combative, directed martial arts, training, and all of that, while training the ethical and spiritual aspect of martial arts, where we never fight out of jealousy, threats, challenges, or anger, but only fights for right.